1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a refrigerator equipped with a machinery chamber door, which is provided to open or close a machinery chamber formed at an upper portion of a body of the refrigerator.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, refrigerators are adapted to store various foods at a low temperature in a fresh state for a long time in a storage chamber by supplying cold air generated from an evaporator of a cooling cycle to the storage chamber. The refrigerator has an outer appearance defined by a body, of which an inner space is partitioned to define the storage chamber for storing frozen or refrigerated foods, and a machinery chamber equipped with a compressor, a condenser, a control box, and the like. The body defined with the storage chamber is equipped with a door hingably coupled to the front side of the body such that the door can be rotated right and left in order to open or close the storage chamber.
Further, in order to enhance space utility of the storage chamber, some conventional refrigerators are provided at an upper portion of the body with the machinery chamber, which is formed at the front side of the machinery chamber with an opening portion, and with a machinery chamber door hingably coupled to the opening portion such that the machinery chamber door can be rotated up and down for opening or closing the machinery chamber.
Further, in order to enhance convenience, there has been developed a refrigerator having a door equipped with an electrical component chamber, which includes an operating portion for controlling the overall operation of the refrigerator after receiving an operating signal from the user. Meanwhile, in order to define the electrical component chamber inside the door, an electric wire for electrically connecting the machinery chamber to the electrical component chamber in the door is required, and for this purpose, the electric wire is forced to pass through the opening portion of the machinery chamber and a hinge part, by which the door and the body are coupled each other.
However, since the conventional refrigerator has the electric wire passed through the door through the opening portion of the refrigerator, there is a problem in that when the machinery chamber door is opened or closed, there can occur interference between the electric wire and the machinery chamber door.
Moreover, since the conventional refrigerator has the structure wherein the machinery chamber door is hingably coupled to the opening portion to simply rotate up and down at the opening portion without a separate locking means, there is a problem in that the machinery chamber door can be opened or closed unintentionally due to an impact applied to the body when transporting the refrigerator or due to a vibration during operation of the compressor or the like, thereby causing noise.